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Episode 825: The Airport Angels Edition
Date February 24, 2016 Summary Ben and Sam banter about Angels at the airport, Ryan Webb, and a home-run-hitting contest, then answer listener emails about winning three-game series, the best radio broadcasts, the baseball equivalent of the San Antonio Spurs, and more. Topics * Restructuring the standings based on three-game series * Baseball equivalent of the San Antonio Spurs * Favorite radio broadcasts * High pitcher intentional walk rates * NL Central predictions Intro Paul Weller, "All the Pictures on the Wall" Outro D'Angelo and The Vanguard, "Back to the Future (Part II)" Banter * Episode 824 follow-up: Sam was at John Wayne Airport and the Angels murals were updated to include 2012-2015. * Webb/Albers: Ryan Webb signed with the Rays and Ben thinks this is the year he gets a save. * Sam opens a box with 10 copies of ''The Only Rule Is It Has to Work ''that were sent overnight from Manhattan. * A Rangers fan won free season tickets by hitting a home run at Globe Life Park. Similar promotions were discussed in Episode 396 and Episode 731. Email Questions * Sam: "When I was 12 I went to my first ballgame in Shea Stadium for a Mets vs. Cubs game. I absolutely loved it and sat with my dad next to a couple of experts so I found it fairly easy to follow that game. Since then I've watched countless games and read every book I can get my hands on, I now regale my friends with fascinating baseball facts and they don't seem to go down that well. However my question is this: when I originally tried to work out how the season was scheduled I saw that a lot of teams played each other in blocks of three and thought that probably teams played a series against each other and then the winner of the season was the team that won the most series. So how do you think teams would adjust and the game would change if teams played 54 3-game series a year? Also if this was the system that was chosen would you decide the winner of a series by the first team to two wins or by aggregating the runs across the three games? The latter would mean that there were no dead rubbers (to use a British term) but it would also mean that Americans had to get used to tie games in the first two matches or if one team was ahead going into the last match and that match was level." * Shamit: "I have been a San Antonio Spurs fan for 8 or 9 years now. I recently got into baseball but don't particularly support a team. I was wondering which team is the Spurs-iest team in baseball?" * Kevin (San Diego, CA): "Who are your favorite radio broadcasters?" * Jenny: "I was checking out the Baseball Prospectus team depth charts earlier today and noted that in the NL Central PECOTA has the Cubs winning the division 92-70 followed by the Pirates at 83-79, the Cardinals at 82-80 and the Brewers and Reds at worse than that. I was curious as to what your opinions are on how the NL Central will turn out this year. I am a Pirates fan and I certainly could not have predicted a 98-win season for them last year or that the best three teams in baseball would be in the NL Central. So who do you have winning the division and will the NL Central dominate this season as it did last season?" Play Index * Sam uses the Play Index to see which pitchers have the most intentional walks relative to total walks. He set the minimum at 20 intentional walks. * 7% of all walks in 2015 were intentional. * 43% of the 162 career walks issued by Dan Quisenberry were intentional. * 64% of Don Dennis' 33 career walks were intentional. Notes * Eight relievers recorded a save for the Tampa Bay Rays in 2015. * Sam recalls that one of his favorite things in baseball was that they used to always play the bottom of the ninth even if the home team was winning. He says it must be 'several hundred episodes' since he last mentioned this. It was previously mentioned in Episode 652. * Ben thinks that the St. Louis Cardinals are the baseball team most similar to the Spurs. * Sam thinks that the Mets' and Giants' radio broadcasts are the best two currently. Links * Effectively Wild Episode 825: The Airport Angels Edition * Broadcaster Rankings (Radio): #10 - #1 by Carson Cistulli Category:Episodes Category:Email Episodes